Sweet Caroline
by Angleterre97
Summary: It's Friday Night, which for High school students means football night. Matthew, Drum Major, has a surprise for the football team and their QB, his best friend, Alfred.


The crowd is on the edge of their seats, suspense filling the grandstands with the snap of every new play. It's Friday night. It's a high school football game. It's the crossover game for play-offs. It's a senior quarterback's most important game yet.

"Go get em Al!"

That is the quarterback's name. And that is his best friend cheering him on from the stands. That friend's name is Matthew Williams. He's the senior Drum major of the school band.

The game is entertaining. It is sloppy. It is intense. Matthew can see happiness and frustration come and go on his friend's face as one play leads to another and another. The Drum major knows how hard Alfred has been working for this, how much he'll work for any victory.

He's got something special planned for him.

As the team goes into the locker room at half, with the score tied, he makes sure everything is set.

"Do you all have it?" He calls up to his band. The drummers nod, then the trumpet and saxophones. The low voices and finally flutes and clarinets at the top call down their confirmation. They had practiced it all week, it was going to be perfect.

'_Even if they don't win... ' _Matthew thought to himself. '_At least Al will have something to smile about.'_

"Hey, Captain Matt!"

He looks up from his thought, one of the drummers talking to him.

"Yeah Gil?"

"Your boyfriend better like this."

He blushes and glares at his red-eyed classmate.

"He's just my friend, and I told you, this is for the whole team."

"Whatever you say birdie."

He takes a deep breath. Any minute the coaches would emerge from the locker room and the boys would follow soon after, Alfred leading the charge.

When they do he calls the band to attention. He counts them off. One. Two. One two three four. And they launch into their school's fight song. The crowd claps and sings along as the team runs onto the field. Matthew smiles as the last notes of the tune ring in the air. It was time.

"Ready guys?"

He gets a slew of yes, yeah, and head nods. He glances one more time at the field. Alfred is leading stretches and Matthew catches himself blushing just the slightest bit. He turns and counts the band off once again. He hoped Al would like it. One. Two. One two three four.

The tune starts in the low voices, followed by sax and then trumpets. Flutes and clarinets cover the verse. The football team recognizes the song right away, it's a song the coaches play constantly at practice. Everyone from the school know this song. The pre-chorus builds and builds, and Matthew looks back to the field to see the coaches smiling and the players looking to one another, grinning from ear to ear. Alfred looks up to Matt as the chorus breaks and he belts it out with the rest of his team, (It's the only part of the song they really know well), and it's like he's singing just for his favorite drum major up in the stands.

_**Sweet Caroline**_

_**(Bum bum bum!) **_

_**Good times never seemed so good! **_

_**Oh woah woah I've been inclined**_

_**(Bum bum bum!) **_

_**To believe they never would...**_

The student section dances with the music and the adults (Who know the song far better that the students, for it was not their era) sing along. The chorus repeats and then the pep tune winds down to a great close of cheers and whoops and hollers from the crowd and the field.

"You're the best Mattie!" Alfred yells from the sideline as the players bring themselves in from warm ups. "I love you man!"

Gilbert, the teasing drummer from earlier, snickers at how red the Drum major's face becomes. But Matthew hardly cares. He smiles to no one in particular, mostly himself.

After the game ends the Drum major leads the band in playing their schools Alma Mater. They had won by a field goal. Then, as everyone packs up their instruments, Matthew slips down to the field. Alfred is at the bottom of the steps, waiting to pull his best friend into a crushing hug, swinging him around. Sweaty, muddy and smiling.

"Dude! That was so awesome! You played our song for us!"

Matthew laughs and nods, not knowing quite how to voice how happy he is that Al is happy too.

Gilbert walks past with a smirk on his face. He looks at Alfred then to Matthew as he carries his bass drum back to the bus.

"So is that your guys' song now or what?"

Matthew, ready to strangle the boy, loses the urge when Alfred just laughs and nods to the albino.

"Guess you're right man, it's totally our song!"

From that day on the Drum major couldn't bring himself to get too mad whenevre Sweet Caroline would get stuck in his head. Because it would just bring him back to senior play-offs, and the night that led to his strong, talented best friend becoming his strong, talented boyfriend.

And Gilbert, of course, took all of the credit for the (Awesome) outcome.

/OOO/

**Ok, so this is loosely based off of my own high school experience. Loosely. Sweet Caroling by Neil Diamond is a song the football coaches (Who are almost all teachers as well) play constantly. We in the band played it for them at a play-off game recently and they went crazy for it, it was just the coolest thing. Hope you like this crude little thing I wrote for it.**


End file.
